When a host agrees to accept data, they put up out-of-pocket money. This makes it expensive for a bad actor to accept an infinite amount of data, as each piece

When a host agrees to accept data, they put up out-of-pocket money. This makes it expensive for a bad actor to accept an infinite amount of data, as each piece of data requires more collateral to be put forward by the host. Before a renter creates a contract with a host, the renter will perform some measurements on the host and determine if the host is suitable. A renter in China will chose different hosts than a renter in the US, because the latencies and throughputs of each host will be different.